Wanda Ann Regina Massie of Saco celebrated her 100th birthday on Dec. 1. Tammy Wells Photo
SACO — When Wanda Massie was 18, she visited New York City, and a waiter in a restaurant told her she would live to be 100 years old.
The waiter may have been a bit of a clairvoyant because she celebrated the 100th anniversary of her birth on Dec. 1, with a party at the Elks Lodge on Ocean Park Road in Saco.
There was cake, a champagne toast, lots of glitter and lots of family and friends — and she danced with her son Charles “Chuck” Massie Jr.
Wanda Ann Regina, who later married Charles Massie, was in the first generation of her family to be born in the United States, said Chuck.
Her father immigrated alone from Poland in 1910, and worked to save enough money to bring his wife and their children to the U.S. Wanda was the second child to be born to the family in America, her son said.
Wanda Massie is bit hard of hearing these days, and so Chuck talked about is mother’s interests. A keen golfer, she remains interested in the game and watches it daily on television, he said.
Her last golf game took place when she was 90, a couple’s tourney at Deep Brook Golf Course, he said. “Her last shot was a 15-foot par putt on the second hole,” Chuck said. She remained active most of her life, he said. “She gave up shoveling snow three years ago and stopped gardening two years ago.”
Surrounded by four of her 16 great-grandchildren, Wanda Ann Regina Massie enjoys a few sparkles and some glitter on the occasion of her 100th birthday. Courtesy Photo
When Massie was born in 1921, Warren G. Harding was president. The 1918 influenza pandemic had lingered into 1920, but by 1921 had largely been quelled. Penicillin didn’t exist in 1921 — it made its debut seven years later. The movie “The Lucky Dog,” starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy was playing in movie theaters, and a Model T Ford cost $310, according to online sources.
On the morning of her 100th birthday, she was seated in a sunny room of the home on Lincoln Street she shares with Chuck and her daughter-in-law Jane, wearing her signature red, smiling for a photograph. A bookcase behind her is filled with many volumes — she is an avid reader and does Sudoku daily, her family said.
In her teens, Wanda Massie was a member of the Biddeford High School Glee Club and traveled to Washington, D.C. with her senior class. After her 1938 graduation, she worked at Woolworth’s.
Then came World War II. Chuck said his mother tried to join the WAVES — the acronym for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service that was established July 30, 1942, as the U.S. Navy’s corps of female members — but her eyesight was not sufficient for service, so she went to work at Saco Lowell.
Massie was a volunteer at the clothing resale shop the Penny Pincher and a docent at Saco Museum-Dyer Library. She was a member of the alter guild and served as treasurer at Trinity Episcopal Church.
Wanda Ann Regina Massie had a couple of wishes for her 100th birthday Dec. 1. One was to have a party and the second was to dance with her son Chuck – and she got both. Courtesy Photo
She married Charles C. Massie on June 29, 1951, and the couple honeymooned in New York. Her husband had been widowed, and so upon their marriage she became stepmother to Patty, Michael, and David, and a few years later, Chuck was born.
Asked how she wanted to mark turning 100 years old, she told her family she would like a birthday party — she had never had one before.
They obliged, and family and friends gathered to wish her well.
Earlier in the day, she reflected, on reaching 100 years.
“I’m lucky to be here,” she said.
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